Portraits of Chiefs and Members of the Crow Tribe

The Native American Crow Tribe, known in their Siouan language as “Apsáalooke,” settled around the Yellowstone River, which stretches from modern-day Wyoming through Montana and into North Dakota, where it joins the Missouri River.

The name “Apsáalooke” was given to them by a neighboring Siouan tribe, the Hidatsa, and it means “children of the large-beaked bird." French interpreters translated the name as gens du corbeaux (“people of crows”), so they became known as the Crow.

White Swan, Crow

A Crow indian

Bull Chief – Apsaroke, 1908

Goes Ahead – Crow

Wolf – Crow

Frémont and ’49

White Swan, Crow

Edward S. Curtis photographic portrait of Plenty Coups

Spotted Rabbit (Crow tribe) on horseback, Montana.

Spotted Jack Rabbit, Crow

Spies On The Enemy, Crow

Photograph of Crow Indian Swallow Bird by Edward S. Curtis, 1908

Photograph of Crow Indian chief Pretty Eagle

Coups Well Known – Apsaroke, 1908

Cabinet card photo of Crow Army scout Yellow Dog aka Old Coyote, aka Fox Just Coming Over The Hill

The early settlement of Crow tribe was around Lake Erie in Ohio. However, the Ojibwe and Cree people, who have better access to guns through the fur trade, pushed the Crow to migrate to the south of Lake Winnipeg.

There, the Crows faced yet another aggressive and not-so-friendly neighbors, the Cheyennes, who pushed them to the West. Both the Crow and Cheyenne tribe were pushed further west by the Lakota (Sioux) who took control over the territory from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of Montana. While the Cheyennes allied with the Sioux, the Crow tribe remained a bitter enemy of both tribes.

Cabinet card photo of Crow Army scout Yellow Dog aka Old Coyote, aka Fox Just Coming Over The Hill

Cabinet card photo of Crow Army scout Yellow Dog aka Old Coyote, aka Fox Just Coming Over The Hill

Hail Stone, Crow Indian by Frank Jay Haynes, 1883

Photograph of a delegation of important Crow Nation Indian chiefs, 1880.w